The Sentinel Self (2022 – present), Sissel Marie Tonn
EXHIBITION: Door Open Space
Thu May 30 – Sun June 2
To truly understand the ecological functioning of our earth, we will need to develop a self-awareness that transcends the conventional Western view of the human body as an autonomous entity. There's an interconnectedness and interdependence between organisms and their environments. In the words of artist Sissel Marie Tonn: Where do we see that our bodies end and the environment begins?
The Sentinel Self is an interactive artwork, built with a game engine, that reflects on the relationship between human immune systems and environments increasingly polluted by microplastics. We now know that microplastics move through water and air, invading both human and non-human bodies and blood streams.
The work invites you to explore an ongoing simulation of a vast aquatic, body-like ecosystem. Here, cell-like creatures roam around attempting to keep an ecosystem in balance (homeostasis) while acting as sentinels. In environmental science, ‘sentinels’ are organisms whose sensitivity to environmental change help us to understand the health and vulnerability of an ecosystem.
Visitors can travel deeper inside the bodies, activated by the heart rate monitor at their fingertips. As the simulation evolves over time, you witness the blurring boundaries between the internal and external ecosystems, making you aware of the dangers of a collapse of both the ecological and immune systems.
About the artist
Sissel Marie Tonn is a visual artist who merges ancient and contemporary technologies to tell stories about what it means to be human today. In her art-science collaborations, Tonn explores how stories shape our reality. In this way, science is not only a source of ‘truth-telling’, but also a socially constructed storytelling practice. Her work empowers sensitivity, receptivity and emotion as essential tools for collective survival in an increasingly polluted environment.
Created by Sissel Marie Tonn | Lead Unity Developer - George Simms
3D world building and design - Zuza Banasińska | Music and Sound - Jonathan Chaim Reus
IA designer /hardware developer - Sam Bilbow | Rigging and animation - Sarah Fernandez
3D Modeling - Sissel Marie Tonn / Project support - CheeYee Tang
Texts - Heather A. Leslie & Sissel Marie Tonn / Webdesign Wikimedia- DXR Zone
Immunology advisor - Juan J. Garcia Vallejo (VU Amsterdam) | Scientific advisors Area Science Park - Alessio Ansuini, Francesca Cuturello, Alberto Cazzaniga, Lisa Vaccari
With the support of: S+T+ARTS, Area Science Park, Stroom Den Haag, Creative Industries Fund NL, The Sussex Centre for Consciousness Science, MEET Digital Culture Center
